Tech moguls Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos
all scored on the bottom half of the scale for trustworthiness, according to
analysis conducted by global brand consultancy Landor.
The CEOs of major tech companies face an interesting
and challenging public perception. They can sometimes seem like celebrities,
generating a certain buzz and excitement among people. But business scandals
and other issues can prompt that same public to see them as untrustworthy. A study by consultancy group Landor looks at
some top tech moguls and their companies to learn how consumers view them.
Using consumer opinions from the 2019 U.S. BrandAsset
Valuator, Landor's analysis encompasses more than 3,000 different brands, both
tech and non-tech. For the purposes of the new study, CEOs were considered
brands just like their companies. So the analysis didn't compare CEO against
CEO or company against company, but rather compared and ranked all of them
together as they're seen in the public eye.
Among the tech moguls included in the study, Tesla CEO
Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook both ranked in the 21st percentile for
trustworthiness, meaning they were considered more trustworthy than only 20% or
less trustworthy than 80% of the other brands analyzed. Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg scored in the 13th percentile, meaning he was seen as less
trustworthy than 88% of the other brands, while Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ended up
in the 6th percentile, seen as less trustworthy than 95% of the other brands.
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, and John Zimmer, CEO of Lyft, were both ranked
in the 2nd percentile on trust.
On a more positive note, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel led
tech CEOs on trustworthiness, scoring in the 52nd percentile.
But the negative views held by consumers about these
tech moguls don't necessarily extend to the companies themselves, at least not
all of them. For trustworthiness, Amazon scored in the 99th percentile, while
Apple was in the 87th percentile, meaning both companies were near the top of
the list. On a more negative note, however, Facebook was in the 31st
percentile, while Tesla was in the 21st. At the bottom of the list was
Snapchat, which scored in the 7th percentile, a marked contrast from the
trustworthy ranking granted to its CEO.
Why the low trustworthy rankings for certain tech
moguls?
"Tech moguls can be seen by the general public as
untrustworthy for a variety of reasons," said Attila Tomaschek, digital
privacy expert at ProPrivacy. "Essentially, public perception of
untrustworthiness in tech moguls can be as varied as the companies they have
built. For instance, Jeff Bezos is seen by many as untrustworthy because he is
one of the richest men in the world, yet reports of unfavorable working
conditions and low employee wages in Amazon warehouses have prevailed and
diminished his overall level of trustworthiness in the public eye. Tim Cook can
be seen as elitist by pushing sleek products but at preposterous price points.
Mark Zuckerberg can often be perceived as almost robotic and completely
unrelatable to the average Facebook user. Furthermore, Zuckerberg's hollow
promises to protect user privacy fall flat when his company continues to falter
on privacy matters, which obviously doesn't do much to boost his
trustworthiness factor."
And why the disparity between the views of the CEOs
and the companies they run?
"The companies are viewed as trustworthy because
they have built lovable brands and offer a consistently positive consumer
experience," said Sacha Labourey, CEO of CloudBees. "People love the
variety of goods they can buy on Amazon and the ease with which they can do so
- no matter what Bezos' personal escapades are. Whatever you order is there
within a day or two - fast delivery. Facebook has enabled literally billions of
people around the globe to connect and stay in touch - even though the Facebook
CEO was selling massive amounts of data about them without their knowledge.
Apple has designed and manufactured stunningly designed products that look
sleek, provide industry-leading innovation - and work, no matter their US
employment status, tax avoidance practices, or manufacturing operations. Whatever
the behaviors of the person at the top, their brands are lovable."
With the low trustworthy rankings given to certain
tech moguls, could this type of public perception affect the actual business or
product sales?
"For Apple and Amazon, at least, the perceived
untrustworthiness of their executives would have little to zero impact on their
bottom line," Tomaschek said. "The services that Amazon offers and
the products that Apple delivers are already so well established and so deeply
ingrained in consumers' consciousness that for many it can be difficult to live
without. Amazon's services are so convenient that consumers practically never
have to leave their own homes to shop for anything. The convenience factor and
the breadth of its offering are largely responsible for why consumers will
continue coming back to Amazon. As for Apple, the company has built such a
devoted following that is so emotionally connected to its products that the
trustworthiness of Tim Cook is completely irrelevant to sales or the company's
bottom line."
Still, CEOs are missing out on opportunities to better
connect with the public, according to Maarten Lagae, Landor's director of
insights and analytics.
"I think the biggest insight from our analysis is
that CEOs are missing out on a massive opportunity," Lagae told
TechRepublic. "If you're leading a technology company, very often
technology is considered a bit faceless, scary, anonymous, compromising
privacy. The opportunities that CEOs have is to put a face and a human touch on
their companies and their products. And I think our analysis shows that a lot
of these high-profile tech CEOs aren't completely leveraging that
potential."
Using the
BrandAsset Valuator data of 17,000 U.S. consumers, Landor Pulse analyzed brand
strength based on relevance and differentiation among adults aged 18 years and
older.
